Apparatus for indicating the composition of gases.



M. WERNER & H. HAUPT.

APPARATUS FOR I NDICAT|NG THE COMPOSITION OF GASES. APPLICATlON men APR.9. 1915.

1,220,037. Patented Mar. 20, 1917.

HANS HAUPT AND MARTIN WERNER, 0F BERLIN, GERMANY.

APPARATUS FOR INDICATING THE COMPOSITION OF GASES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed April 9, 1915. Serial N 0. 20,309.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, HANS HAUPT and MARTIN VERNER, both subjects of the Emperor of Germany, residing in Berlin, Germany, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Apparatus for Indicating the Composition of Gases, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact specification.

Our invention relates to an improved apparatus for indicating the composition of gases by the-aid of diffusion, and the pur-' pose of our invention is to obtain accuracy and reliability of such indications; we realize said purpose by employing an airreservoir in connection with the diffusing apparatus and intermediate measuring chambers. I

To make our invention properly understood, we have illustrated the same in the accompanying drawings, in which: A

Figure 1 is a longitudinal section of the apparatus provided with the improvements of our invention; 7

Fig. 2 is a longitudinal section through that part of the apparatus which principally contains the mechanical means for obtaining the desired effect; the parts, in said figure are drawn on a larger scale.

Referring first. to Fig. 1, 1 designates the diafiphragm which performs the process of di usion and which tightly covers the chamber 2; 3 is a U-shaped glass tube containing a colored liquid which by being raised or lowered within the two legs of .said tube, serves to indicate the state of the gas. From the upper end of one of the branches of said tube 3 a capillary tube 4: leads into the chamber 2, and from the other leg a capillary tube 5 leads to the air-reservoir 6 or into the open air. Before testing the gas we prefer to open the valve 8 by pressing.

tightly on the button 7, whereby the pressure of the outside atmosphere is established in the chamber 2 and subsequently to open the valve 9 by applying a stronger pressure on the said button 7, to establish the same outside atmospheric pressure likewise within the air-reservoir 6.

According to our invention we provide two or more smaller chambers, such as 10 and 11, each having a predetermined capacity, each of which being destined to be alternately brought into open connection with and then tightly shut off from the diffiming-cha-mber 2 and the air-reservoir 6.

By providing said chambers 10 and 11, we

are able to always supply the equal volume of air from the air reservoir 6 to the diffusing chamber 2, whereby the desired accuracy of the indications is obtained.

As will be seen from Figs. 1 and 2, the two chambers 10 and 11 are formed by a partltion of the casing located in close juxtaposltion t0 the diffusing chamber 2. The opposite ends of said chambers are provided with ports 12, 14 and 13, 15; the two ports 12 and 13 of one side leading into the diffusing chamber 2 and the other two ports 14 and 15 into the air-reservoir 6. A shaft 18 trai'erses the casing of the said two chambers in the longitudinal direction, being tightened within the end-walls of said casing. ,The said shaft 18 extends to the out side of the apparatus and is provided with a handle 19 for turning the same. Eccentric valves 16 and 17 are carried by said shaft- 18 to alternately open and close the port-s of the two chambers in such a manner, that, while ports 13 and 14 are open, ports 12 and 15 are closed and vice versa. It will be seen thereto that on giving the shaft 18 half a turn, the two "eccentric valves 16 and 17 will open the communication between the chamber'll and the diffusing chamber 2, and close the port of said chamber 11 against the air-reservoir 6 while, by the next half turn of said shaft the chamber 10 will be brought into communication with the diffusing chamber '2 and shut off from communication with the air-reservoir 6. The volume of air supplied to the diffusing chamber 2, accordingly, will be exactly the same on each halfturn of shaft 18, the size of the two chambers 10 and 11 being exactly the same.

We also prefer to open the valve 8 for a short time before performing the test and before turning the shaft 18, thereby permitting the outside atmosphere to enter into the chamber 2'.

The apparatus of our invention is particularly adapted and destined to be embodied within the casing of an electrical miners lamp of any kind. If a miners lamp provided with gas-testing device is only desired to indicate the quality of the foul damps, it would be sufficient to employ the valves 8 and 9, as before described, but our invention especially serves to ascertain the quantity of the constituent parts of the vapors or gases or the percentage of such Patented Mar. 20, 1917.

constituent parts .or of carbonic acid contained in the atmosphere by repeated tests. In order to bring about this result, the apparatus operates in the following manner: Before entering a mine the chambers 2, 6, l0 and 11 are filled with atmospheric air by the suitable operation of the valves 8, 9, 16 and 17. When entering the mine the presence of fire damp, etc. which enters the chamber 2 through the diaphragm 1 will be indicated by the displacement of the colored liquid in the test tube 3 to a certain extent. This is done while the chamber 6 is in connection with chamber 10 and chamber 2 in connection With chamber 11 by the respective positions of the valves 16 and 17 as shown in Fig. 2.

If now the handle 19 is turned the atmospheric air in chamber 10 will enter chamber 2 through the operation of the valves 16 and 17 which close said chamber against the chamber 6, and thus a predetermined quantity of fresh air will enter this chamber 2 and effect another displacement of the liquid in tube 3, so that the difference in the indications will represent a means for ascertaining the percentage of gas present in the mine.

We claim as our invention:

1. In apparatus for indicating the composition of gases by way of difiusion, the

' combination, with the diffusing chamber of the apparatus and an air supply chamber, of a plurality of auxiliary chambers and means for connecting said auxiliary chamhers in alternation with the said diffusing chamber and with the air-supply respectively, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

2. In apparatus for indicating the composition of gases by Way of diffusion, the combination, with the diffusing chamber of the apparatus and an air supply chamber,

of a plurality of auxiliary chambers of equal size separated from each other, the

opposite end walls of each of-said auXiliary chambers provided with ports to connect the same one Way with the supply of atmospheric air and one Way with the diffusing chamber of the apparatus, valves for opening and closing said ports, and a shaft for operating said valves, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

3. In apparatus for indicating the composition of gases by way of diffusion, the

the apparatus and an air supply chamber,

combination, with the diffusing chamber of of a plurality of auxiliary chambers of equal size separated from each other, the opposite end walls of each of said auxiliary chambers provided with ports for connecting and disconnecting the same one way with and the other way from the supply of atmospheric air and with and from the diffusing chamber of the apparatus, a shaft carrying and controlling said valves the valves for' HANS HAUPT. LIARTIN WERNER. 

